CLARENS AND THE CAT’S WHISKERS
A Free State trip offers the perfect R&R — just add a spot of shopping,
IT was close to midnight when I found the most gorgeous piece of artwork in Clarens sitting in the window of the Woven Art Gallery. She was a regal, long-haired ginger cat, her face filled with beauty and disdain in equal measure. Her name, I discovered the next day, was Olivia and, as the shop’s cat, her duty was to live among the spectacular collection of oriental rugs and show them off to their best advantage.
I left half an hour and a host of cat and carpet stories later, sorry that I didn’t have a feline under one arm and a kelim under the other, but satisfied with yet another interesting interaction in a village filled with myriad residents, all there for different reasons, all in love with their particular piece of paradise.
Clarens is an obliging spot, with tree-lined avenues, a well-maintained village green and some lovely sandstone buildings framed by the Rooiberg and Maluti mountains. It is whatever you need it to be and in that way it’s rather unique.
For some it’s an outdoor shopping centre built around the town square; for others it’s a base point for outdoor and extreme adventures from whitewater rafting, quad bike tours, walking trails and, of course, mountain biking. For still others it’s the art. Clarens rose to fame as an artists’ hideway. You can wander from gallery to gallery like I did (there are around 20) or take the Art Route, a map of which is freely available at most of the galleries in town. And if that doesn’t tickle your fancy, the dinosaur route that shows off fossils dating back more than 240 million years might.
My Clarens experience was a weekend of rest and relaxation, which entailed pointless meandering, endless chatting to locals, eating far too much and taking the time to take in the view, which presented itself from the moment I opened my eyes.
From the bedroom window at the Protea Hotel by Marriott® Clarens, the Maluti Mountains loomed large. The hotel is not hard on the eye either; stylish, modern, with more than a nod to the area’s iconic sandstone cliffs in its architecture. The view from the pool is in itself worth a return in summer.
Our group had visited the Clarens Brewery the night before. Advertising itself as a brew-pub, cidery and distillery and proclaiming to be the first artisanal brewery in the Free State, it is also probably the only pub in SA that opens at 10 in the morning and closes at 7pm. We hardly had an opportunity to enjoy the beer tasting that preceded our ciders when last round was called. The brews got a unanimous thumbs up from our group, and we continued to chug them down at the Highlander Restaurant up the road, where we successfully paired them with pizza, steaks and fish ’n’ chips.
And at 10am the next morning, while I chilled over an excellent cappuccino at the Highland coffee roastery, I watched in awe as a resilient team of customers descended on the brewery. Hair of the dog, perhaps.
For R&R to truly work you need more than a view and good conversation; it’s also mandatory to buy something utterly unnecessary.
Sadly, the Walter Battiss print at the Art and Wine Galley went the same way as the kelim, but I could see my way clear to a Basotho blanket sold to me by the highly entertaining octogenarian Gertie Dejager. She and her sister Minnie di Mezza have been selling general wares and Basotho blankets since the ’50s. That and a bottle of intoxicating cherry liquor should tide me over until I next feel the call of the Malutis. — Seid was a guest of Protea Hotel by Marriott® Clarens
For R&R to truly work, it’s mandatory to buy something utterly unnecessary